I just published Don’t Perish! A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Paper (2026 edition) Great science deserves to be read—not buried under unclear writing. This is the updated 2026 edition of your favorite guide to writing scientific papers. medium.com/p/dont-peris...

[6/8] Using analytical techniques and docking experiments, we demonstrate that PpCUS enzymes catalyze the polymerization of 10,16-dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid (10,16-diOH-C16:0) using a 2-monoacylglycerol (2-MHG) as substrate, producing a reticulated polyester similar to that in flowering plants.

[5/8] Confocal and electron microscopy revealed that PpCUS enzymes localize to the apoplast, where they control cuticle integrity and its diffusion-limiting properties.

[4/8] CRISPR-mediated knockout of CUS genes in the moss Physcomitrium patens (a bryophyte) caused abnormal development of gametophores, the first tissue in the moss life cycle to form a cuticle.

[3/8] Through phylogenetic reconstruction, we found that the CUS family emerged in a common ancestor of bryophytes and tracheophytes, the two sister lineages of land plants, coinciding with the transition to terrestrial environments.

[2/8] The cuticle is a specialized hydrophobic modification of the epidermal cell wall that acts as a diffusion barrier. CUS enzymes are essential for cuticle formation in flowering plants (tracheophytes), synthesizing the lipid polyester that forms its structural framework.

Ever wondered how the #cuticle, a hallmark of land plants, was established? In our latest study, we show that the CUTIN SYNTHASE enzyme family was a key driver of this evolutionary innovation. #plantscience ▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A thread 🧵 [1/8]

A dated phylogeny of 16,585 vascular plant species native to China reveals three major centres of endemism, including a potential new global biodiversity hotspot 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Huge congratulations to the newest Dr from the lab - Dr @sannie-zishanfu.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!!! A special thanks to Jacob Suissa for making the trip over from the US! It’s been great spending the last couple of days chatting about all things ferns and lycophytes 🌿

#JobAlert #PhD 🌱 We are offering a PhD project to explore how transcription factors have shaped the evolution of plant protective barriers. We will support suitable candidates in applying to the @unistra.fr Graduate School competition. Interested? Please get in touch for more information!

tinyurl.com/Root-map tinyurl.com/Seedling-map tinyurl.com/Marpol-map tinyurl.com/BFA-maps tinyurl.com/gnom-maps (8/9)

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment. (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

We are really excited that Euro Evo Devo will take place here in Scotland from the 9th-12th June, at the University of Glasgow! Deadline for Early Bird Registration and Abstract Submission are rapidly approaching in March so do register soon! www.evodevoconference26.com/important-da...

Rhizoid‐mediated phosphate uptake and internal transport in the non‐vascular plant Marchantia polymorpha nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Interested in the most recent developments in plant science? Join the Mendel Early Career Symposium on May 21-22 at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social to exchange with experts about their science and career trajectories. Register by March 13th for a talk. More here: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/news-eve...

What to learn more about the enigmatic organism Prototaxites?? Have a read of our new Quick Guide in @currentbiology.bsky.social It includes another great palaeo-reconstruction of the Rhynie ecosystem from @matt-humpage.bsky.social

🚨JOB alert🚨 We have three (yes, THREE) 🌟lectureships🌟 advertised in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. Broad remit, including #AnimalBehaviour & #GlobalChangeBiology ⏱️Deadline: 8th March 2026 🙏Please circulate widely 😊Come join us! Full #job details: tinyurl.com/y3us95rc

"We describe the only known example of a three-dimensionally mineralized heart, thick-walled stomach, and bilobed liver from arthrodire placoderms, stem gnathostomes from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia" www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Fascinating single-cell red algae: models for evolution and adaptation #TansleyReview by Berger et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience

A wonderful seminar by @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social today! Thanks for making the trip north to @instmolplantsci.bsky.social

What could be more satisfying than this ? ✨️Congrats to all the authors ✨️ Could not be more proud of you 🥹 Credit: Camila Goldy @camilagoldy.bsky.social

For my pals in the UK: @waterstones.bsky.social is running a fantastic pre-order promotion this month! You can order The Story of Birds and save 25%! Just be sure to use the code FEB26 when ordering! Thanks as always to Waterstones and my publisher @picadorbooks.bsky.social #WPreorder

Recruitment of bifunctional regulator thermospermine to methylated ribosomes directs xylem fate | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨 Positions available in Plant Science! Please share. We’re hiring: 1. Postdoc 2.PhD (UK applicants only) Focus: root oxygen dynamics, developmental signalling. Come help us uncover how O2 shapes root development. More info here- sites.google.com/view/root-re... #plantscijobs #plantscience

It was good to catch up on my reading for this dispatch in Current Biology. Sjoerd Woudenberg in the Weijers lab, Wallner et al. In the Dolan lab and Flores Sandoval et al. In the Bowman lab have done a great job! Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem?: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Plant Science Research Weekly --  Not a Fungi after all: new clues to the identity of Prototaxites (Science Advances) (Summary by Katarina Kurtović, katarinakurtovic.bsky.social) @sandyheth.bsky.social @transitionalform.bsky.social buff.ly/DwgUr2f #PlantaePSRW

Read all about Diego's hunt for lycophytes around Scotland in this post! 👇👇

A new blog is out on our website! 📄 Go check it out! Diego Sanchez Ganfornina from @sandyheth.bsky.social's lab talks about the field work he just completed in Scotland. He is trying to generate a lycophyte living collection – likely UK’s largest! 🌿 biology.ed.ac.uk/plant-scienc...

Today's lycopsids ("clubmosses") are small plants and do not produce wood but some of their Paleozoic relatives did! This is a detail of the wood cells in a stem of Sigillaria from the Carboniferous of the USA 🔬🌿⛏️ Happy #FossilFriday! #paleobotany #botany

#PlantSci Res Wkly Jan 30 (2/2) plantae.org/plant-scienc... Mechanoperception and defense signaling; Rapid evolutionary gene expression shifts shaped angiosperms; Intergenerational epigenetic acquired nematode resistance; That big, big fossilized organism that probably isn’t fungal after all

Interested in giving a talk? Submit your abstract by 13 March to be considered. More Information about the event and registration here: events.vbc.ac.at/gmi_events/m... #Mendel_ECR_26 #WhereKnowledgeGrows

The very first Dr from the group! Congratulations Laura @transitionalform.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for passing your viva yesterday!! 🎉🎉 Thanks so much @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social and Paul Kenrick for acting as examiners

It’s been amazing to receive so much interest in the Prototaxites paper! An absolute highlight was talking about the work last night to Jane Hill on BBC R4, The World Tonight The Prototaxites segment starts at 33 mins 👇👇 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

It was a joy to contribute to this paper led by @sandyheth.bsky.social, Corentin Loron and Laura Cooper. We show the Devonian fossil, Prototaxites, is not a fungus but is in fact an organism from an as yet unknown extinct eukaryotic lineage. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @dcu-lsi.bsky.social

Really exciting to get some press coverage on our Prototaxites paper @instmolplantsci.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Gorgeous #paleoart: Prototaxites towering over an expanse of early land plants. Great work @matt-humpage.bsky.social!

See also nice summary here in @science.org: www.science.org/content/arti...

22 / 23 This project was a large collaboration between research groups at Edinburgh and other institutions, with Corentin Loron and I as co-first authors (and as part of my PhD thesis!) and @sandyheth.bsky.social as corresponding author.

12 / 23 Below shows us imaging through the medullary spots of Prototaxites, revealing the dense and interconnected branching of tubes that go down to one micron in diameter!

4 / 23 First we used high-resolution microscopy to examine in detail the structure of the fossils, and then analysis of the molecular fingerprint of the organic matter preserved within the fossil.

3 / 23 But Prototaxites hasn’t been definitively placed in any of the groups of living fungi. In our study, we took a new approach to this question. We wanted to see if Prototaxites could fit within the fungal group as a whole, and to answer this, we used a combination of techniques.

2 / 23 What Prototaxites was has been debated extensively since its first description almost 170 years ago. It was originally described as a tree, but this was soon rejected. More recent researchers have described it as a fungus, due to its hypha-like structure and likely decomposer lifestyle.

1 / 23 Prototaxites is known from some very large fossils, including columns over 8m tall. These fossils date from the end of the Silurian to the Late Devonian (425–365 million years ago). This makes Prototaxites the largest organism on the Earth’s surface before the appearance of tall trees.

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

Excited to share our new investigation of Prototaxites! We found no support for a fungal affinity and instead suggest it is best considered an entirely extinct complex eukaryotic lineage Great team effort @transitionalform.bsky.social Corentin Loron, and many others! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Happy to present our latest: Evolutionary adaptations to the hormonal regulation of vascular tissue development | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... Work by Wei Xiao and funded by @erc.europa.eu

🌱🌾🌲🌍🌿🍄🌺🌳🌴🌷🪳🐝🧬🥦 Botanical University Challenge 2026 #BUC2026 starts on-line 11 February. Teams of 4 students on degree programmes should register by 23 January- deadline extended. See website for more details. botanicaluniversitychallenge.co.uk/buc2026/ @bsbibotany.bsky.social

2026 UK plant biomechanics workshop on 17th April 2026 in Nottingham. Abstract submissions deadline is 13 Feb, and registration is open. 🌱🧪🌿🔬#PlantSci

ECRs in plant–microbe interactions: Join us in Norwich for an intensive, interactive 1.5-week Summer Conference at TSL (20–31 July). Lots of opportunities for networking and deep discussions. (We also plan to offer hands-on practical sessions using our technologies 🔬🧬)